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American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits Important Information

(Tax Year 2014)

Shippensburg University Students:

Near the end of January 2015 you will receive an Internal Revenue Form 1098-T in the mail. The University is required to issue this form to each student who attended at any time during the 2014 calendar year. Retain this important form for income tax preparation purposes for 2014. If you do not receive a 1098-T form shortly after January 31, please visit https://borrower.ecsi.net/ to request a duplicate 1098-T (instructions for logging in to the ECSI site are below). To request detailed information of amounts billed and paid, call the Students Accounts Office at 717-477-1669.

The 1098-T provides part of the information you need to claim education tax benefits provided by the American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits. The Form 1098-T should be used along with the taxpayers own records of tuition and fee amounts paid to complete IRS Form 8863 to claim the tax credit.

This information is provided as required by the IRS and does not represent tax advice from the University. The taxpayer should refer to relevant IRS forms and publications or to their tax advisor and should not contact the University for explanations relating to eligibility requirements or calculations of any allowable education tax credit.

The IRS requires that the university must report either Amounts Billed in 2014 or Amounts Paid in 2014. Shippensburg University will be reporting Amounts Billed (Box 2). What is reported in Box 2 may represent an amount other than the amount actually paid by the student in 2014.

Due to Academic Years not corresponding to Tax Years, information on your 1098-T may be confusing. Below are explanations of each box on the 1098-T to help clarify the financial data reported.

Box 1.

Will contain NO information. SU will be using the Amounts Billed option (see above).

Box 2.

Shows the net amounts billed for tuition and qualified fees in 2014. SU bills for Spring 2015 semester in 2014; therefore, Spring 15 charges may also be included in this box. Any new charges posted in 2014 relating to prior years may also be included. Qualified fees include Ed Service, Technology, Student Union, Activity, Field Placement, Off Campus Support and Recreation fees. Non-Qualified fees include Health Service fee, room and board. Books are also not included in Box 2.

Box 3.

This box will not be checked. Our reporting method has not changed.

Box 4.

Shows any reductions in charges that were reported on a prior year 1098-T.

Box 5.

Shows the total of all scholarships, grants and waivers processed by SU in 2014. Note
that most Spring 2014 charges were posted in 2013 and would not be included in Box 2, however, most Spring 2014 grants and scholarships were posted in 2014 and, therefore, would be included in Box 5. This could result in amounts in Box 5 being larger than Box 2!

Box 6.

Shows any reductions in scholarships, grants, or waivers that were reported on a prior year 1098-T.

Box 7.

If this box is checked, the amount in Box 2 contains charges posted in 2014 for the Spring 2015 semester.

To request a duplicate 1098-T, visit ECSI’s website at https://borrower.ecsi.net/. Instructions for logging in once you are at the ECSI site are as follows:
Log in (School Code is 09 “zero nine”)
Click on “Need help logging in?” if you do not know your account number and pin/password. (NOTE: You must put 09 in the School Code box before clicking on “Need help logging in?”.
Follow the instructions to log in.
After you are logged in, click on Tax Information under My Account.